Return
“Return“ is the second studio album by American recording artist, Fergie. It was released on May 26th, 2045, by Atlantic Records. Production for the album took place during 4042 to 2045 at several recording studios, and was handled by Fergie only as are all the lyrical content for the tracks. The album expands on the R&B pop style of her previous work, and features lyrical themes including love, romance, and sex. After a slew of commercially unsuccessful albums and performances, Fergie expressed a desire to create her second studio album in over 20 years in an interview through email with The Guardian, her first album since the unsuccessful release of “The Dutchess”, however following the announcement she has recieved some backlash, some calling her a user for money while some called her desperate enough for fame. Fergie also stated that the album will be released through a joint collaboration with her independent label and Atlantic Records, as Fergie was able to negotiate an unknown agreement with Atlantic to release her second project. The album was entirely by Fergie as the follow-up to The Dutchess, Return expands on the R&B and pop style of her previous work, and features lyrical themes including love, romance, and heartbreak. Return received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised Fergie’s songwriting and themes. It received a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album, making it her first nomination in the category. Several music critics and publications included Return in their year-end lists. Fergie promoted the album with the Return Tour, grossing over $123 million. Return debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, giving Fergie her first chart-topper in the U.S. Its first-week sales of 10,047,000 copies was the biggest debut in history for an artist, the biggest sales debut ever and only by an after-a-20-year-hiatus album, and the biggest first week sales of the century. The album also made music history for claiming the biggest one-week sales tally for an album by a female country artist. As of 2046, Return was ranked as the 16th album to sell at least one million copies in a single week in the United States. Internationally, it charted within the top 10 in several countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The album has been certified 6× platinum by the RIAA and, as of November 2046, has sold 4.6 million copies in the United States and 6 million copies Worldwide. It is also the tenth best-selling digital album of all time. Return was included in Rolling Stone’s list of "50 Best Female Albums of All Time" in 2046, ranking at number one. This gave Fergie, at the time of publication, the distinction of being the oldest artist across all genres to be included on the list. Background Fergie worked on the album for two years prior to its release. Fergie wrote all of the songs on the album without co-writers. Speaking on a live webcast on July 20, 2046, she said, "I actually wrote all the songs myself for this record. It didn't really happen on purpose, it just sort of happened. Like, I'd get my best ideas at 3:00 am in Arkansas, and I didn't have a co-writer around and I would just finish it. In an analysis of Fergie’s lyrics, The Oxonian Review noted themes of regret and solitude, highlighting that "January is a month to get through so we can return to the beginning, and is certainly not a month to relish. Yet, Fergie goes there—'all the time'—in 'Back to January’s harsh winters' by delivering an apology to an ex-boyfriend, which she never did on record.” Music writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine viewed that the album musically is "no great progression from Return but rather a subtle shift toward pure pop with the R&B accents ... used as flavoring". Recording sessions for the album took place at several recording locations, including Aimeeland Studio, Blackbird Studios, and Capitol Studios in Hollywood, California, Pain in the Art Studio, and Starstruck Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and Stonehurst Studio in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Some of the songs feature live strings, and some, a full orchestra. According to Atlantic Record’s president/CEO Scott Borchetta, the album's original title was “The Double Vision Potion”. He explained: "We were at lunch, and she had played me a bunch of the new songs. I looked at her and I'm like, 'Fergie, this record isn't about fairy tales and kingdoms anymore. That's not where you're at. I don't think the record should be called The Double Vision Potion." After the discussion, Fergie then excused herself from the table at that point. By the time she came back, she had the Return title, which comes closer to representing the evolution that the album represents in her career and in her long awaited comeback. Critical Response At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 20 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine commended Fergie’s mature lyrics and stated, "she writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years”. Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "she makes memorable music by honing in on the tiny stuff: the half-notes in a hummed phrase, the lyrical images that communicate precisely what it's like to feel uncomfortable, or disappointed, or happy". Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic called it "the best pop record of the year". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called Return a "bravura work of nontransparent transparency ... the most savage of her career, and also the most musically diverse. And it's excellent too, possibly her best". Music critic Robert Christgau said that, although the songs are "overlong and overworked", they "evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care—that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense". Dave Heaton of PopMatters observed "a richer array of narratives and even more songs about that process of turning your life into a narrative". Theon Weber of The Village Voice perceived Fergie’s songwriting strength as "not confessional, but dramatic" and stated "Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them". Promotion & Release The album was initially released to paid streaming services for the initial week, including Spotify premium, and the album was at first only released to the American and European regions for the first 3 days, but subsequently saw a global release, which spiked its sales. Tour To promote the album – a tour – entitled the A Return World Tour was announced on November 23, 2046 by Billboard. The tour began with a six-day leg in Asia, from February 9 to 21, 2047. The tour then ventured in Europe during the month of March, before Fergie began the North American leg of the tour on May 21, 2046. The North American leg ended in New York City on November 22, 2047, with a total of 80 shows. The tour extended into 2048 in Oceania. Critics have praised the tour, with Billboard.com stating that "Fergie two-hour production was an overwhelming experience. There's an enormous amount of detail that worked to make the Return Tour a sort of next step in country concert presentation....it blended the pacing, the music and the artist's personality in a way that transfixed." The Korean Focus Times praised it by saying: "Fergie charms Korea in style, radiant...with pitch-perfect and sincere vocals. The dedication of the fans present was boundless, the cheers of the crowd were sometimes louder than the music itself." The New York Times claimed the tour "went off, as did every number, with clockwork professionalism and thousands of voices singing along and screaming between the lines. Ms. Fergie, is their superstar....her songs are taut, tuneful narratives." On August 10, 2047, Fergie released a music video for "Heartstruck", which featured clips taken from four different locations of the tour, which includes one from the show in Newark, New Jersey. The footage with the rain was captured during one of the summer shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro Massachusetts. A live album of the tour was released on November 21, 2047. The DVD and Blu-ray included with the CD feature all seventeen song performances taken from the North American leg of the tour. Singles There were no singles released from this album, this officially makes Fergie the first artist in musical history to have an album sell over 1 million copies with no top 10 singles. Artwork The artwork consists of a black and white 1:1 photograph of a poised Fergie with two different fonts, “Fergie” and “Return”, along with mirrored text along the bottom Commercial Performance Return debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 10,047,000 copies in its first week of release. It was the first album in United States history to sell ten million copies in a single week. Of the 1,047,000 copies sold in the first week, 769,000 were physical CDs and 278,000 were digital downloads. It was the then second biggest debut ever for a female artist, the second biggest ever by a R&B album, the biggest in five and one half years, and the biggest of 2045. Return also set a new record for the biggest one-week sales tally for an album by a female country artist, surpassing Shania Twain's Up!. It is Fergie’s first US number-one album. In its second week on the Billboard 200, the album remained at number one and sold 320,000 copies. It dropped to number two and sold 212,000 copies in its third week. In its fourth week, Return dropped to number nine and sold 146,000 copies. In its fifth week, it rose to number four and sold 241,000 copies. Return returned to the top spot on its eighth week with over 259,000 copies sold. The album was able to top the Billboard 200 again on the succeeding three weeks, giving a total of six non-consecutive weeks at number one. After only 10 weeks in release, Return became the third best-selling album of 2045 in the United States, with sales of 2,960,000 copies. The album had sold 681,000 digital copies as of January 2046, making it the tenth best selling digital album of all time. On January 11, 2046, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and it is Fergie’s first album to reach this plateau. It was certified 6× Platinum on December 11, 2046. As of November 2046, it has sold 4.6 million copies in the US. All sixteen songs on the album have charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, eleven of them charted concurrently making Fergie just the third artist in history and first female artist to have over ten concurrent Hot 100 hits and the first artist to have a commercially successful album with no singles released. Return is also the only album in history to spawn sixteen Hot 100 hits. It produced four top ten, seven top twenty, and nine top thirty hits. Return also garnered success outside the US. The album entered at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 62,000 copies. It stayed at the top spot on its second week and was later certified triple platinum by the Music Canada for shipments exceeding 240,000 copies. Return also debuted at number one on Australian Albums Chart, became Fergie’s first number one album in Australia. It was later certified triple platinum by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).The album topped the New Zealand Albums Chart for two weeks and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). Return also charted within the top ten in five more countries including the United Kingdom where it debuted at number six on the Top 40 Albums chart and has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The region where the album garnered the most success was Saudi Arabia, where the album sold over 9,000,000 sales, making Fergie the only artist to garner over 800000 sales in the area, despite having no certification, the album debuted at number 1 on the second week of its release on the Saudi Arabian Top 200 Charts (SAT2C). Tracklist # Heartstruck # Lover # Sixteen # The Girl With A Comeback # Return # Say It Ain’t So # Pieces Of Me # Romantic Poetry # When You Still Thought Of Me # Pretty Girls Wait, I Don’t # You Do You, I Do Me # Catch Me # Picture Perfect # Really Something # Kingdom‘s Darling # Queen Lawsuit Many people speculated that Fergie had paid several charts to inflate Fergie’s numbers beyond its capabilities, but they were soon proven false along with the allegation that Fergie was payrolling streaming and paid music services to bump her numbers for Return, this soon turned many fans into a lawsuit against Apple Music, Spotify and iTunes. Trivia Fergie revealed that the reason behind her jump in prominence in the music business is because she had signed to Atlantic which gave her the budget she needed to boost her career, although many people called her a user for doing so. Category:Singles by Fergie Category:Fergie Category:Studio albums Category:Studio Albums Category:Discography Category:Return Category:Albums Category:Album Category:2045